Judgement

Appeal from a judgment and decree of the High Court (March 11, 1908) reversing a judgment and decree of the Subordinate Judge of Faridpur (June 80, 1905).

The suit out of which the appeal arose was instituted by the appellants in 1903 for possession of a jalkar or fishery in certain tidal navigable waters, being part of the Ganges or Padma river in the district of Faridpur, for an injunction and mesne profits.

The appellants were the proprietors of a zamindari known as pargana Char Makundia and they claimed that a jalkar mahal described as in the river Balabanta was settled in their prede cessor in title as a distinct mahal forming part of Char Makundia at the time of the permanent settlement, and had been enjoyed since. They alleged that the river Balabanta was at the date of the settlement a local name for the Ganges or Padma river. The channel in which they now claimed the right of fishing was navigable and had been formed in 1897 by a change in the course of the river, but they claimed that it was within the upstream and downstream limits of the jalkar granted to their predecessor and that their right of fishing extended to it, although (as was admitted in the appeal)